She had never had reason to wander around Summer and she didn't intend to stay there then, instead trying to place herself in an ancient ruin she had not expected to find.
Why were there ruins in Faerie?
Giving the question a pass for the time being, she looked upwards to try and find where the skies met and she cringed at the distance she would have to go.
She didn't hear anyone behind her until a large hand closed around most of her face and she was yanked back into a hairy body.
Screaming out of shock, thinking it was the demon, she jerked free of the hand and spun, a knife seeming to materialise in her hand at the speed of the draw.
Her eyes met chest and then lifted to see the face of Barron, the centaur she had met once before.
"We have to stop meeting like this," he said in an amused boom.
"You shouldn't sneak up on people, you'll get stabbed," she warned, glaring at him before sheathing the blade again.
"I'm not overly concerned," he said and beat a fist on his chest. "Hard as nails, we centaur."
She snorted, recalling the centaur Versalis had killed in Ayathian but she shook her head. A thought occurred to her then and she tilted her head slightly.
"What are the odds of us running into each other twice?" she asked and his grin made her considerably nervous.
"Not high, unless we've been waiting for you."
She had only just processed his words when a dart thudded into the small of her back.
"Seriously?" she demanded, plucking it out and throwing it at the centaur. "What is wrong with you people? I'm a perfectly nice person if you just leave me alone."
She turned, trying to see who or what had darted her, but she only saw ruins and yellow leaved trees.
"Nice or not, princess, you are in Summer," Barron said and as she turned, the world suddenly tilting sideways and she staggered, gripping a broken wall to keep from falling.
"How did you know who I am?" she asked, her voice seeming to be coming out as a wobble from far away.
"Your father killed many of us, we recognised your name," he said and smiled as she plopped down onto her backside, her hands seeming to stretch and warp as she lifted them.
"I should have killed you when I had the chance." Her vision was going blurry and she stared up at the large blur of brown and tan.
"Yes, you should have. Sleep well, princess."
She did sleep then, dropping back onto the stone and unconscious before she felt the collision.
***
When she woke, she found herself bound tightly at her arms and legs and sitting in a chair. Everything else was still a blur around her and she blinked hard to try and figure out what she was seeing.
The marble under her bare feet was white streaked with gold and she was sitting in a chair that was also gold, the straps were at least not the gold ones she knew to be owned by her husband, but they were tight and she was unable to move enough to cut them.
Glancing down, she was able to feel that she had been carefully disarmed, a tilt of her head telling her they had even found the vials from her hair and she sighed, frustrated at the foresight of the inhabitants of Faerie.
She was in a small room with nothing but her chair and a tapestry of a blonde woman with blue-green eyes and bronze coloured lips in a black dress.
Squinting at the tapestry, she leant forward to try and focus on it, then jerked back violently when the eyes moved. She might even have squeaked a little in shock.
The eyes focused on her and then narrowed before turning to gaze into the distance again and a door behind her opened.
A massively tall figure stalked into the room, clad from head to toe in black amour, followed by a small little wisp of a girl with a million freckles on her honey skin and a mass of wild red hair down to her backside.
The two looked at her and then the girl smiled.
"Behave and we won't have to hurt you, we are going to unstrap you and bind you. Do you understand?" She sounded disgustingly chipper and Etani nodded, staring at her.
The male made quick work of her bindings and then tied a simple yellow ribbon around her wrists in front of her. The sight was so incredibly odd, that she tested it and then hit the ground as all of her strength vanished, only to begin to return in a slow seep that made her feel ill.
"You'll only ever do it once," the girl said happily.
"Yes, thank you," Etani said sarcastically as the enormous, faceless man helped her up.
Leading her from the room, she found all sorts of creatures staring at her with the same amount of fascination that she levelled on them.
Aside from the obvious differences between Winter and Summer was the blatant colour differences between the two. Winter was all cold blues, blacks, silver and white. Here everything was yellows, reds, oranges and oddly, blacks.
She saw a sphinx with haughty gold eyes watching her, her long tail swaying in agitation. Beautiful women and equally beautiful men, dryads with their earth tones and leafy clothing, pixies and fairies, even a unicorn watching her with a creepy level of consciousness.
She seemed to be the centre of attention, a sharp contrast from the warm tones with her coldly dark colouring and ribbon binding her hands.
She found herself turning to try and see the sphynx again, fascinated with the creature. Her affinity for felines had her wanting to go back and yet the sphynx seemed uninterested in her. It was a little disappointing, but she let it go.
The pair pulled her through the hallway and into another, then finally into an enormous hall so packed with creatures she was surprised there was room to move at all.
At the far end of the hall a tall dais held three thrones, two small and casual with the large middle one being made entirely of gold and looking weirdly leaf shaped with the tip curling up to provide the Queen a place to sit.
The woman sitting on the throne was the woman from the tapestry, her long blonde hair bound in a long braid coiled with gold atop her head. She had large gold earrings with aquamarine stones set into it, the design that of a flower. A matching necklace hung around her throat, a large series of the flowers and stones covering her chest.
Her dress was rather ordinary compared to that of the girls at her side, only a simple black flowing thing with long streamers of black fabric that flowed around her and hung around her shoulders and up over her head.
She wore no shoes and she found the sight of her pretty feet weird though she wasn't sure why.
The woman looked older than any Fae she had ever seen, looking to be perhaps in her forties with laugh lines and small creases at the corners of her eyes.
"Queen Cecelia, may we present the Princess Etania of Winter. Captured while trying to travel between worlds," the faceless male at her side boomed out in a huge, echoing voice from inside his helmet.
The crowd went silent as all eyes turned in their direction and she looked up at the queen, her chin lifted and effecting her best 'yes, and?' expression.
"Welcome to Summer, princess," the queen said gently, her copper coloured lips pulling into a wide smile and revealing perfectly straight, white teeth.
"Pleasure. Can I go now?" she asked, making a vague gesture towards the door.
A snort came from somewhere but no one seemed willing to own up to the sound.
The queen had looked in the direction but then her eyes returned to Etani with that same kind smile that made her skin crawl. No one was that nice, or maybe she was jaded.
The queen didn't seem to be overly bothered by the rudeness and she gave a slight shake of her head.
"I'm afraid we can't let you leave, we haven't been able to gain control of a Winter Princess for a very long time," she said happily.
"You're wasting your time, if you want a real princess go after Megara or Hercia. Though I suppose Megara is the queen now. Who's the second princess now?"
"Xena," the queen supplied and Etani nodded.
"Xena then, go ask for one of them. I'm sure they'll be glad for something to do. I, however, have things to do, people to see and all that."
The queen didn't look overly impressed by her augment on why she couldn't stay in Summer and Etani sighed.
"Don't make me kill you too..." she said finally, tired of the games of the Fae.
"Too? Ah, so it was you who killed Tatialia?"
"Didn't you already know that?" she tilted her head, curious at how the woman hadn't already been informed.
"No, our spies haven't been able to get through with the added security. They seem to be under the impression that a Fae killer was on the loose. Or maybe you're just a queen killer?"
"No, I'm not all that picky on who I kill," she said flippantly.
The queen frowned at her, trying to figure out if she was serious or not.
"Really though, I think you're great, love the colouring of this place, but I have to get back before my husband blows a vein and starts setting things on fire."
"Sit down," the queen said and suddenly her legs no longer held her up.
Finding herself on her backside, she squinted up at the woman. "I really don't appreciate your holding me, Cecelia," she said coldly.
She expected a reaction but again the queen seemed unbothered by her rudeness. That in itself gave her pause and set off all sorts of warning bells. No one was that calm, unless they were unable to get angry.
Her eyes swept the room, searching smug and curious faces, some had pity and others looked like they would have enjoyed beating her themselves.
She had assumed that Summer would be the nice side of the coin but the more she looked, the more she doubted that. Something was wrong here and she couldn't quite place her finger on it.
Finally her eyes returned to the queen and she still had that same calm smile, the sight of it making her skin crawl.
"Given you are quite a hostile creature, we feel you should remain contained for the time being," the queen said and Etani looked down at the obnoxious yellow ribbon.
"Of course you do..." she said sourly, irritation filling her.
What was she going to do? She needed to get back, but this Court was refusing to let her go and she had no means of contacting anyone for a retrieval. She realised with cold certainly that her desire to keep secrets from her friends was what got her into that situation.